Many beverages such as soft drinks and beer are sold in small aluminum cans. The most common can has an imperforate metallic lid and means for punching a pour opening therein so that the beverage can be consumed.
Many people have noted the drawbacks associated with the common beverage can. The cans often sit for long periods of time in warehouses waiting for distribution to stores, for example, and warehouses are of the dirty. As a result, most consumers quickly wipe off the lids of such cans before opening them and drinking therefrom in a nominal, at best, effort to avoid germs.
Obviously, such casual wiping cleans off only the more visible dirt and has little or no effect on microscopic viruses or bacteria that may be alive and multiplying on the can top.
There is therefore a need for a device that protects consumers from having to place their mouths on beverage can tops. Quite a few inventors have tackled the problem, and numerous solutions to the problem have therefore appeared.
For example, U.S Pat. No. 4,579,257 to Brandlein shows a drinking attachment for a can top that provides a sanitary mouthpiece or spout that protrudes upwardly from an opening in a plate. The plate clamps to the circular bead or rim of the can. A sealing unit on the plate surrounds the can pour opening, and the sealing unit is made of a suitable material.
Other patents of interest include Canadian patent 952,455, German patent 197803, EP patent 5115, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,033, 4,066,191, 4,403,709, 4,185,496, 4,679,702, 4,703,873, 4,796,774, and 4,572,386.
However, none of the known prior art devices share the same novel structure as the invention to be disclosed hereinafter.